For health insurance companies, a moment of truth

The Globe has done a fine job covering Bernie Sanders’ introduction of a single payer plan and its practical and political implications, with one exception. By all accounts, current insurance providers are doing just fine under the Affordable Care Act, but they have done little to ensure its survival by increasingly focusing their services on the more profitable regions while threatening to pull out of rural and low-income areas. Given the possibility of a Democratic party takeover of both houses of congress during the Trump presidency, industry leaders should choose to do everything possible to ensure the success of the ACA. If Medicare For All continues to gain political traction, it will become clear that they need the support of the American people more than the people need their services. They should be working now with rural and economically depressed areas to find creative solutions to expand health coverage. Continuing to succumb to greed instead may lead to their well-deserved demise. 

[Accepted for publication under letters to the editor by The Boston Globe]